Mack’s Mid-Morning ES Price Action Chart 12-18-2024

First and foremost, this will be my last workday of the year. I will complete a chart lesson today, but there won’t be a new mid-morning report or chart lesson until 2025, as I will be taking off the remainder of the year and taking a break. My mom continues to have more health issues, and her mind is slipping as well, so I will be busy with her the next couple of weeks as well as the normal Christmas and New Years holidays.

The assisted living home she is in now is suggesting it is time for more care, so a nursing home is their suggestion. I have tried to avoid that, and hate that for my mother, but I may have no other choice at this point. Please continue to pray for her health and peace for me as I make some very difficult decisions with her. You don’t realize the struggle you go through with aging parents until you live through it, and I can tell you it has been very difficult and heart breaking for me.

Today is an FOMC rate announcement day, so make sure you are flat by Noon CST. This is one news event that you do not ever gamble with, as things can go completely flat an hour prior, so I would not enter any new trades after Noon CST, and I would be flat well before the news comes out. Again, if you are new here, understand that the FOMC announcements are not to be taken lightly. Rarely are they a dud, but when I say rarely, I mean very rarely, so always take them seriously and follow the rules of being flat well before the news event and never take a new trade an hour prior.

For now, prices are range bound and moving very slowly. The bias is mildly up as I am typing this up, but that may change back and forth a few times if this remains a range day. Expect mixed trading and depending on what the Fed does with rates, this could be a very volatile day before it is over. It might turn out to be nothing, but it could be a zinger as well. There are still signs of inflation after the last rate drop, so they might have acted too quickly in lowering rates. I think the Fed is between a rock and a hard place and no matter what they do now, it’s going to be painful. Think and plan accordingly and if nothing big happens, consider it good news. Literally, prices could go in either direction before it is all over, so sit tight and wait out the news and volatility and then evaluate from there.

In closing, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year. If you trade over the holidays, avoid the short trading days, as they are not worth your effort and will sometimes punish you for trying to trade them. Expect things to be slower with lower volume at times as well. I am checking out at the end of the day today and I will see you in 2025! Blessings to all of you!